


Marked

by jujus_writing_corner



Series: Whumptober 2019 [15]
Category: Real Person Fiction, Youtube RPF
Genre: Basically just lore, Gen, Past Character Death, Past Violence, Scars, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 23:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21044414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujus_writing_corner/pseuds/jujus_writing_corner
Summary: Figments don't scar the same way humans do.Whumptober Day 15: Scars





	Marked

**Author's Note:**

> Tagging this was kinda complicated. Technically speaking no one dies in it, but past deaths are referenced, but death is like...not permanent to these guys. So. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Hope you like it, though!

Figments don’t scar the same way humans do.

If that were true, nearly every figment would have some scar or another. Silver Shepherd would be dotted with indented bullet holes from shielding civilians and pink knife marks from violent criminals. Yandereplier would have a mess of criss-crossing, puffy scars and deep indents from severe, gouging wounds. He’d have lines from stitching under his hair and his jaw would click from the time Chrome’s programming fritzed and made him attack him, he’d have a long, raised mark down his side from ripping his stitches and almost bleeding to death. Even more mild-mannered egos would have them: MarkBop’s head would still be shaped wrong from his skating incident, and King of the Squirrels would have a hole near the base of his spine from the time he fell out of his tree onto a rock that nearly paralyzed him. Even Dr. Iplier, who by all rights should have none at all, would have a few from violent patients and a few more from plain bad luck.

But in fact, only three egos have scars, and it’s for a very particular reason: Figments only scar from wounds that kill them.

Figments can return from the dead if their popularity is strong enough. If their cause of death is anything but fading or being killed by their creator, they can be restored by the belief of the people who helped them form in the first place. But the deaths stay marked on their skin for the rest of the life they do live, until they are finally forgotten. The egos have found that, if the killing wound is treated and fixed like a wound on a still-living body, the scar won’t be so severe. But it will still be there, even if it’s harder to see.

Darkiplier’s worst and oldest scar, for example, is the deep indent on his chest just beside his heart, the one he never lets Yandere touch. But he has more: Faded, shallow bullet holes from deals with humans gone wrong. Thin, rough marks from knife wounds caused by the same. A long line, nearly all the way across his neck, from the one fight that Antisepticeye won against him. And, now, a bumpy, circular scar under his hair from being shot in the head by a gang boss. Though Dark doesn’t let Yandere touch the old bullet hole on his chest, he lets Yandere card his fingers through Dark’s hair over the new scar, lets Yandere feel that there’s skin there now, that it’s healed, that Dark is alive and no worse for wear. For his own part, Dark doesn’t give much thought to his scars. His suit covers most of them, and he has little concern for cosmetic perfection. The only scar that ever bothers him is that first one, and he’s lost count of how many minutes he’s spent glaring at it in the mirror, cursing the day he got it.

Wilford, unsurprisingly, is covered with scars. He has far and away the most out of anyone in Ego Inc. Even Dark, for all his scars, could recall and explain how he got each one. There aren’t yet so many that he’s lost track of them. Not so for Wilford, who couldn’t say a word about a single scar he has. Many of the scars are old enough to be nearly faded; it’s for this reason that Wilford’s skin isn’t simply a mess of scar tissue. He doesn’t have any wounds that Dr. Iplier wasn’t able to repair before he woke, and thus, many of the oldest scars are nearly invisible. He does have plenty that can be seen quite readily, of course, and for the most part they aren’t that different from Dark’s: Stabbings and shootings mainly, but also the occasional burn scar from explosives he couldn’t dodge or fires he couldn’t avoid. He has a knack for finding himself in strange situations, lending themselves to oddly-shaped or unusual scars. He’s the only one who’s gotten keloid scars; huge, rough masses of scar tissue bigger than the original wound that Dr. Iplier has to treat. Not that Wilford minds much how his scars look; he rather likes how tough they make him look, and he’s had enough women in his bed by now that he’s thoroughly convinced of his own attractiveness. But keloid scars in particular are itchy and annoying, so Wilford could do without them.

The only other scarred ego, The Host, only technically has one: The place where his eyes used to be, spread out to the sockets around it. Only Dr. Iplier has seen the scar tissue that feathers out to just beyond the sockets, the twin caverns filled with bleeding yet lifeless tissue, the rough but delicate skin of the inner walls of each socket. Host has only ever seen it in his mind’s eye when he changes his bandages, or when Dr. Iplier cleans his eyes. Most of it is difficult to see, anyway; there’s no light from within the sockets, and there’s no call to ever reach in and feel how rough the skin there is. It could be worse; Dr. Iplier was nearly in too much despair after his death to try fixing it. Host’s impairment is unusual, even for being caused by a deadly wound. The traumatic loss of senses or body parts is, for every other ego, not permanent. Whether they die from it or not, a severed limb or destroyed sense will eventually return. Yandere’s managed to lose a hand once or twice while training with finicky bladed weapons, and Wilford’s lost enough limbs for many lifetimes. But those always came back, not by growing back from the stumps, but by fading back into existence, slowly becoming more visible and solid, a reversal of the fading that kills figments. No such thing ever happened with Host’s eyes, and never will…but then, Host was not Host when his eyes were taken. In the loss of his eyes he was made anew, and his new self was made to be blind, made to be scarred. The Host does not have an opinion about it, one way or the other. His blindness is hardly a handicap in the face of his power to narrate. Yet he still flinches when Dr. Iplier reaches out to start cleaning his eyes, and he still keeps them covered, even on the days when the bleeding is low. He doesn’t dwell on it. There’s no point. His scars merely are.

Every scar on every scarred ego merely is. They are the one thing that will not heal, that will not go away, the one thing that will, on creatures so fixed and permanent from the moment of their creation, change their bodies forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I wonder if anyone else has the same hcs about the egos as I do :0c (this is how I hc the Septics too btw. Someday, I'll write them...someday...)
> 
> Also, wow, Whumptober's just about halfway over! I'm so happy I've been able to keep up with it. Fingers crossed that I complete the month! ^w^


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